FEBRUARY 8: Pittsburgh will follow through with the plan to keep Sullivan, according to KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson. With a new OC in place, the Steelers considered shifting Sullivan away from his role as quarterbacks coach. But he will stay on in that capacity for a fourth season.
FEBRUARY 1: The Steelers have hired Arthur Smith as offensive coordinator, following through with Mike Tomlin‘s plan to look outside the organization to officially replace Matt Canada. Being just the second Steelers OC hire that did not involve an in-house promotion this century, Smith may still be tied to some of Canada’s assistants.
Closing the 2023 season as Pittsburgh’s play-caller, Mike Sullivan has interviewed for the Raiders and Saints’ offensive coordinator positions. Both remain open. Generally, coordinators have autonomy to recommend candidates to join them as they implement their systems. Smith, however, will be expected to retain Sullivan.
If Sullivan fails to land one of the open OC jobs, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Gerry Dulac notes the Steelers expect to have him remain as quarterbacks coach. Sullivan is popular with the team’s QBs, and although it would make for a slightly unusual setup in which the team’s previous play-caller remains in place as a new one takes over, it appears that is the plan for now.
Smith will have input as to how the Steelers structure their offensive staff, Dulac adds, stopping short of indicating the new OC will have freedom to greenlight hires. Sullivan and Eddie Faulkner split OC duties following Canada’s ouster, with Faulkner receiving the title and Sullivan calling plays. This setup helped Tomlin once again avoid a sub-.500 season, with Mason Rudolph piloting the team to its third playoff berth in four years.
The Steelers hired Sullivan as QBs coach in 2021. After serving as Ben Roethlisberger‘s final position coach, Sullivan has mentored Kenny Pickett. Art Rooney II confirmed (via ESPN.com’s Brooke Pryor) the Steelers still believe in the 2022 first-round pick, with the owner’s recent comments coming after Tomlin indicated the Pitt product would enter the offseason as the starter. After managing just 13 touchdown passes in 25 games to start his career, Pickett’s time as the Steelers’ unquestioned QB1 is over. The Steelers are interested in re-signing Rudolph, but it would also not surprise to see them pursue a more established veteran in free agency to compete with Pickett.
Seeing as the Steelers are interested in retaining Canada-era assistants on offense, will be interesting to see how their 2024 staff looks. Sullivan, 57, served as the Buccaneers and Giants’ OC at points during the 2010s. Pickett’s early performance level is not a ringing Sullivan endorsement, but even as Smith prepares to install his system, the Steelers value their previous play-caller as a part of this developmental process.
How many of the free agent QB’s played for Smith?
Tannenhill? Mariota? Anyone else?
I assume one of them will be signed to backup/kinda compete with Pickett.
Both Rudolph and Sullivan earned respect, in my mind, for stepping up as best they could last year. How much that could contribute to future success is something we’ll see. I’ll say one thing that was encouraging to me was how Sullivan better utilized Najee Harris as a downhill runner, which fueled a lot of his hot run in the later part of the year. In that sense, the Arthur Smith hire makes sense, but you’d figure that Sullivan should be helpful to the new O.C. in carrying on Harris’ success into next year.
We’ll see if Smith can replicate his Tennessee era success with Harris and the Steelers. The additional presence of Warren as a change of pace outside runner should give Smith a Titans style dual back system that could allow him to use many of his former concepts. If Sullivan is okay with staying on (which he may not be after being passed over), he should hopefully be able to help acclimate Smith with some of the strategies that they changed last year that turned out to be successful.
It’s amazing that even a lot of Steelers fans don’t understand how their team is run. The Rooneys do the hiring and firing, period. The HC is the face of the team, but they hire the coaches, say how they’re going to play, and have heavy input in roster construction. It’s pretty close to how Al Davis ran the Raiders, but no one in the media ever says anything about it with them I guess because they win.
It’s only one Rooney (Art II) who runs the team now and he isn’t his dad or grandad. Things haven’t been going great since Dan passed.
Dan jr got a lot of power
A lot more than I think anyone even realizes
He was heavily involved with the draft
I have heard people say he was the real influence involving Canada
Steelers need to stop worrying about who’s popular and start getting coaches that are effective.
Odd in that they hired Tom Arth as QB coach from the Chargers yesterday. So now they are going with two? What’s Tommy Clements doing these days? Might as well bring him in, too?
Interesting time of year
You have Rooney talking about them already trying to bring back Rudolph, national pundits banging the drum about Wilson or Fields landing here and then the Arthur Smith factor where a guy like Tannehill is concerned
So much for cleaning house in the offensive side of the ball. If I was Smith I would not be happy